Abstract

This study set out to determine (1) whether Jazz chants can improve students’ speaking competence; and (2) the strengths and the weaknesses of the implementation of jazz chants to improve the students’ speaking competence. This research was conducted to the third semester students of English Department, teacher training and education faculty of Purwokerto Muhammadiyah University in the academic year of 2012/ 2013. The action research was conducted in two cycles, three meetings for each cycle. The research procedures were divided into four stages: planning, acting, observing, and reflecting. In collecting the data, the writer used observation, interview, questionnaire, and test. The data were analyzed through descriptive statistics for qualitative data, and constant comparative for the qualitative ones. The writer as the teacher was helped by a collaborator as observer while the writer was implementing the research. The results of the observation were presented in the form of diary and checklists. Interviews were taken to support initiations, the plans and the findings of the research. The tests consisted of a pre -test and post-tests. The data were analyzed through descriptive statistics for quantitative data and constant comparative for the qualitative ones. The following conclusions can be drawn from the present study: (1) jazz chants could improve the students’ speaking competence in terms of pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension as the speaking aspects and could gain the minimum score of passing grade, (2) The strengths of jazz chants in teaching speaking in this research were: jazz chants provided experiences of learning speaking which they had never done before and the opportunities to express their creativity through the activity of making jazz chants on their own. Meanwhile, the weaknesses of jazz chants were: they are topic–oriented, inflexible, and tend to be monotonous. This study has given an account of and the reasons for the widespread use of jazz chants in teaching speaking because jazz chants could improve the product and process of speaking. These findings enhance our understanding of using technique of young learners-accustomed to any-aged learners and enriching teaching technique source as what English teachers easily find through copyright textbook. Keywords: speaking competence, jazz chants, classroom action research